Zakiz to foray into offline retail by next financial year

Premium global leather brand Zakiz, who has brick-and-mortar presence only outside India but been retailing through online channels in India, has already tied up with leading multi-brand leather goods retailer Heel & Buckle London to sell their products. Heels and Buckle will start retailing Zakiz's products from their outlets in Palladium Mall, Mumbai and Delhi.

Explaining more on the retail plan, Hersh Lilaramani, Founder and CEO, Zakiz, mentioned, "We already have presence in 20 countries with UK, USA and Australia being the major ones among them.  This is our fourth year in India and we have been retailing only through online channel. However, our years-long observation on customer behaviour bent has prompted us to go for brick-and-mortar store presence in India. Surprisingly, we have received numerous enquiries and orders from tier-II Indian cities. To begin with, we will be retailing through Heel & Buckle by next year but we are also looking for tie-ups with MBOs like Lifestyle and Shoppers Stop to become more accessible in Indian market. Exclusive brand outlet will also eventually come in place but that's going to take some time.”

The first line of products that Zakiz will house at Heel & Buckle stores will be the range of their bags and then proceeding to retail other line of products. Zakiz will also provide bespoke services through offline retail. Commenting on the budget, Lilaramani commented, "We had high expectations from this budget  since this was the first complete Union Budget from PM Modi. It has been a disappointing wait since this budget does not have much allocations for e-commerce players."